At a certain point in our lives, we must confront different parts of our being. However, we have the luxury of private parts, which everyone rarely sees.
We also have the luck of knowing them, controlling them, and finding lasting solutions if we’re lucky enough.
Danny Sullivan struggled to come to terms with different parts of his existence on The Crowded Room Season 1 Episode 8. These parts had been operating in the world without his knowledge, leaving him to suffer the consequences.
Accepting these parts was not his biggest problem. He had legal troubles shadowing him everywhere, and every turn worsened his position.
Learning that he had multiple personalities was very hard for Danny, but facing the consequences of these persons’ actions was possibly the hardest thing ever. Rya guided him in understanding what exactly caused the alters to develop.
It was only through accepting that they weren’t random that Danny could rationalize their existence and actions and find a way to integrate them into one person.
The greatest shortcoming The Crowded Room Season 1 was that the writers tried to keep the subject matter a secret, and in doing that, they seemed to try too hard when everyone could figure out what happened early on.
Our The Crowded Room series premiere review guessed who the alters might be and why they developed with great accuracy. (No, I hadn’t read the book. I wasn’t even aware the show was an adaptation until a few weeks ago)
We knew that Yitzhak was the protector.
He was the beast inside Danny that Danny could never confront. He was the protector needed to protect Danny from his bullies ranging from school bullies to Marlin.
When he remembered or recreated the events in his mind where Yitzhak had been present, it caused him great distress to see the physical pain he had inflicted on people.
The Angelo part hit harder because it was the first time someone else Danny was emotionally linked to saw the ugly. Danny thought the girl had run away because she was afraid of Yitzhak, but she was afraid of Danny.
Even in that tense situation, I couldn’t help but think of how funny it was that Angelo found himself in it. He’d gotten used to Jonny, the submissive twink who would do anything Angelo asked when Angelo boomed.
Barging into the ghost house, he thought he would get Jonny but met the beast. Something I can’t write here is real (or hit the fan) when a grown man pees himself.
In prison, other inmates had met different alters, and his cellmate was conversant with Jack but was very scared of Yitzhak.
Cellmate: Can I ask you a question? The English guy coming back? Jack?
Danny: Wait, you know Jack?
Cellmate: Sure do. Said he was going to give me a chance to win back some of my money. But, uh… Well, he hasn’t really been around here for a while. You don’t remember?
Danny: No.
Cellmate: Wow.
Danny: Wait, it doesn’t bother you?
Cellmate: Fuck do I care? You think you’re the first con I’ve met who’s nuts? Guy can play cards and he’s good company. Just don’t bring back the Israeli.
For the first time, Danny knew that people knew about his split personalities and jokes that’d fly over him before he was too sensitive.
His alters had made a bad name for him everywhere he went, Yitzhak especially.
Next came Ariana. She did emotions. She’d swoop in and save all the tough, emotional stuff Danny couldn’t handle. It was the case on The Crowded Room Season 1 Episode 2 when Danny and Anabelle wanted sex, but it was too much for him.
I expressed the pain I felt for a boy who had never known human connection in The Crowded Room Season 1 Episode 7 review, and learning about Ariana’s purpose was even more heartbreaking. She kept his loneliness.
But through her, something beautiful was born. She fell in love with Jerome, and him with her.
We saw Danny go through the lives the alters had led, and most of it was painful for him to remember. But not Jerome. He didn’t remember Jerome; he experienced Jerome’s love and affection like Ariana’s.
The times Danny had smiled can be counted with less than two fingers. Once was when Rya brought up his mom, and the second time was with Jerome in visitation.
Danny: I can see why she liked you.
Jerome: Are you flirting with me?
Danny: What? No.
Jerome: Relax, man. I’m kidding. [chuckles]
Danny: – [chuckles]
Jerome didn’t need anything from Danny, as most people did.
He was not Rya, who, on the cusp of making a scientific breakthrough, pushed Danny past his limits. He wasn’t the cellmate who needed company.
And if you really care about the kid, stop trying to prove a point on his back and take the win.
Stan
He was there because he cared. Even if it was wild to think about what the papers proposed, he knew Ariana intimately to believe something was amiss.
All the scenes between Jerome and Danny were beautiful to watch in a way no scene on The Crowded Room Season 1 has been.
Jerome consoled and motivated, and he challenged Danny to be better. He was everything everyone looks for in a romantic partner, really.
Danny: What if I don’t like who I become, you know, after the therapy?
Jerome: I-I spent my whole life trying to get right. Who I am. Black man. Gay man. Brave man. Coward. Troublemaker. Peacekeeper. Turns out, I’m all of them. Now, that doesn’t make it easy. I’ve been beat up, spit on, kicked out of every place you can imagine. But I know who I am. And no one can take that from me. Ariana knew who she was. She was proud of it. That’s in you. That’s a part of you. She is a part of you. You do what the rest of us have to. You take the good parts of yourself and you love ’em. And the bad, you try to make better. Best we can do.
Some doors are better not opened, and the Jonny door was one Danny was unwilling to open.
Because Jonny represented Danny’s shame for what he had to do to survive. Jonny was cunning, careless, a drug addict, and a whore. Thinking of all the things Jonny had done to feed, clothe, and indulge Danny’s vices of liquor and drugs was the most upsetting for him.
But it wasn’t that hard to join the dots as a viewer. Jonny had been dishing out sexual favors to Angelo in exchange for drugs and sometimes shelter.
Because of their time together, Angelo knew something was the matter with this person, and finally, “freak” made sense. He’d seen all the things Danny could be, but he had never posed a physical threat to Danny to warrant meeting Yitzhak.
And he might have wished he didn’t.
The legal side of things was heating up. The prosecution was looking for evidence that Danny had a violent past so they could hang him to dry, and the evidence walked right into their office.
The prosecution found some girl, Annabelle Stone, a guy named Angelo Ruiz, that can tie Danny to that shooting in the house, and that he has a history of drug abuse and attempted murder. Now, if these witnesses pan out, this guy just signed Danny’s death warrant.
Stan
With Marlin’s testimony, Danny would be done for. No judge or jury would agree to let such a person walk. The defense was between a rock and a hard place, and the only option they might have would be to plead out or use Rya‘s argument of insanity. The latter was not Stan’s favorite angle.
“Reunion” was not a great episode because it confirmed everything we knew, maybe in a dull way most times. Yet, it had one of the scenes I’d consider the best in the entire show.
The results of the integration are a mystery, but I hope Danny feels something for Jerome and they live in romantic bliss forever. I know it’s a pipe dream, but those are free, aren’t they?
Hit the comments section with your thoughts about the episode.
Denis Kimathi is a staff writer for TV Fanatic. He has watched more dramas and comedies than he cares to remember. Catch him on social media obsessing over [excellent] past, current, and upcoming shows or going off about the politics of representation on TV. Follow him on Twitter.